Lipstick stains

This is how I feel about Josh. Some of the lyrics are perfect, and the tone and how much it makes me want to dance are most definitely how I feel, everyday.<3

"Train - Hey, Soul Sister"
Heeey heeeey heeeeey
Your lipstick stains on the front lobe of my left side brains
I knew I wouldn't forget you
And so I went and let you blow my mind

Your sweet moving
The smell of you in every single dream I dream
I knew when we collided you're the one I have decided
Who's one of my kind

Hey soul sister,
ain't that mister mister on the radio,
stereo,
The way you move ain't fair you know
Hey soul sister,
I don't wanna miss a single thing you do, tonight.
Heeey heeeey heeeey

Just in time,
I'm so glad you have a one track mind like me
You gave my life direction
A game show love connection, we can't deny

I'm so obsessed
My heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest
I believe in you, like a virgin,
you're Madonna
And I'm always gonna wanna blow your mind

Hey soul sister,
ain't that mister mister on the radio,
stereo
The way you move ain't fair you know
Hey soul sister,
I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight

Well you can cut a rug
Watching you is the only drug I need
So gangster, I'm so thug
You're the only one I'm dreaming of
You see I can be myself now finally
In fact there's nothing I cant be
I want the world to see you'll be with me

Hey soul sister,
ain't that mister mister on the radio,
stereo
The way you move ain't fair you know

Hey soul sister,
I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight
Hey soul sister,
I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight
Heeey heeeey heeeeey (tonight)
Heeey heeeey heeeeey (tonight)

Sandwiches

I really have nothing of interest to write about today, but I could tell you the details of my lunch, because I had a very delicious sandwich. Who wants to read about that though.

Josh has been busy all week with work, and he has a friend visiting him so the Skype-ing has been very thin. Hopefully he will find the time tonight. I miss his face, lol.

We look very drunk in this photo. But seriously, how could you not miss him???

I took Kya for a real run last night after dinner. She loved it as usual. She is so patient with my inability to run more than 100 metres at a time. She just frolicks and sniffs things while I rest for another burst. My ultimate goal is to run her in the mile long Hot Hounds races when they start in May. I think she would do well, dragging me down the trails. They host them at Susie Rogan and Hans Gatt's place sometimes. It would be rad!! I miss Susie!

I've been taking some really rad photos the last few weeks. I think I'm getting better. I'm starting to get the hang of good angles and getting above the things I'm taking photos of. Case in point, my shots yesterday. I was quite proud of those. I just wish I could get my hands on better camera equipment, and maybe go back in time and buy a Nikon instead of my Canon. Although if I could get a better lens for my Canon, I'd do well. I will add it to my seemingly never ending list of stuff I really want to buy.

I'm looking forward to a weekend full of work. I'm currently on day 12 of an atleast 20 day streak of work, that could extend to a 27 day streak. Possibly more. I booked off the weekend of the 16th to 18th to go see Josh. Those are my only guaranteed days off. I'm going to leave right after deadline on Thursday, stop at the bank and then straight to Fairbanks. I should get there around midnight. Must get oil changed before then. Hopefully I will not have to stop, but my bladder is not a steel trap. I can't wait to take the Blue Moose on her first official road trip. I expect good things from her.

Maybe this weekend I'll head out and take some photos with my Canon. The Yukon is especially beautiful right now. I keep getting struck by beautiful views everywhere I go. I found this Russian camera that does 180 degree photos, that is my next camera purchase after my Diana. Hopefully I can convince Dad to chip in on the camera for my birthday.

Anyways, off I go.

Love,

Annalee.

Getting it all under control

So I am finally tackling the giant mountain of stories I have to do this week. My to-do list is 13 items long, and I killed six today. Huzzah!

I have another two pages tomorrow, and hopefully will only have to take one for Friday. Although if I take two Friday then it will be my first week of all double pages. But I don't really care. 

Anywho. I found out I'm getting a huge tax return, so our trip is secured! Josh and i planned it all out yesterday. We're going to drive down to Calgary and Kimberley, staying possibly a night at each. Then we're going to head into Montana and hopefully stay at Katie Davis' house. She was one of the Yukon Quest mushers. Then we want to head into South Dakota, and visit Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills. It has come to my attention that Mount Rushmore is really creepy. This sould be an adventure.

We're hoping that Katie can suggest some more stuff to do for the next few days. Then we have to be in Kansas City on the 27th of May. Josh is a groomsman in a wedding, and the bachelor party is that night. I will be ditched, hopefully with some of his friends. Then the wedding is the 29th. It should be fun!

After that we are going to slowly make our way West again, through the Four Corner States of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah. After that we were going to head up to Salt Lake City, where I would fly home, but it occured to us that next to the four corners is Nevada. And you know what's in Nevada?

LAS VEGAS!

That's right, I finally get to go to Vegas! I'm so excited! We're going to do two to three nights there. I texted Ally, and this is how our conversation went:

Me: Wanna go to Vegas with me and Josh?

Ally: Yes. When you going?

And that is why my sister rocks. So hopefully if all goes well we're going to meet up with them from about June 3rd to the 6th, when I'll fly home. This is going to be such a good trip! I'm so excited to spend it with Josh adventuring. I even get to go to the desert and see some cacti. Woohoo!

Love,

Annalee.

The Adventure Final 3

As written in my previous Yukon Quest blog a few weeks ago:

He tried, but failed. Pounding on my door four times between the hours of 9 and 10 didn't do it. I finally woke up at 11 a.m., and headed out to see what was up. I met Josh and got an update of what was up at the checkpoint. The verdict was absolutely nothing. My bottle of wine left over from Circle was calling to us. Josh said he was going to see if he could grab a six pack, and then head down to the Yukon River. 

I will continue from that morning. I did want to wait for Josh, but he got as far as the night before and has left me in suspense for just too long. 

So Josh headed to the general store, the only store in Eagle actually. We had been there the day before, when I begged the clerk for the use of their phone to call Whitehorse to get in contact with my newsroom so Jason knew where the hell we were, and where we planned to be later that day.  They were very nice, and let me dial internationally, so I paid them back by purchasing a packet of beef jerky and other snacks, all of which I had enjoyed in the library the night before. 

What Josh didn't know, is that Eagle is a dry town, in addition to being a fly-in only town in the winter (Now just what the fuck do people in Eagle do? We wondered?). We knew what we wanted to do on a work-less morning, and that was drink. So Josh approaches the counter and asks if he can get a six pack. He received a deeply offended look of horror from the clerk, who informed him of the lack of liquor flowing through the town. Josh was equally shocked, and he went back to look for me rather downtrodden until he discovered I had my wine.

Because it was a dry town, we decided we needed to disguise it, so we poured it into a Gatorade bottle and my juice jug and headed off with my coat pockets filled with snacks. We left a trail of pizza flavoured Doritos in our path to the Yukon River. 

We reached the river after our little trek and settled down in the powdery snow, the snacks propped in the snow, and the wine cooling buried in it. 

It was here that Josh and I finally got to really know each other. We found out about each other's families, talked about our hometowns. I got a little sense of what Alaska living was all about. I found out why the hell Sarah Palin ever got elected in the first place, and what possessed Josh to drive 5,000-miles from Bradenton, Florida to Fairbanks. The first answer to that was just insanity, but the other was the same reason I ended up in Whitehorse. We had that in common, among other things. I also appreciated that on his trek he carried a pirate flag. The person I had been working with for so many days started to become a very good friend as we relieved the stress of following the Yukon Quest. It turns out later that both of us realized at that moment on the Yukon River we liked each other.

We got a pretty good buzz going, before noon, and we decided it was high time to head back into town and search for Sam, who had been out on a snowmobile searching for a photo of the mushers going over one of the passes on the other side of Eagle. We went to Josh's room and waited for Sam. Our theory was that he would find us there, because his stuff was there. We were wrong. As the minutes passed, we realized the time of our flight was creeping closer, so we headed to the checkpoint. Apparently in the time it took us to go to the checkpoint, Sam had arrived at the room in search of us. At the checkpoint, we discovered Sam had been frantically seaqrching for us, so I hopped on the back of a snowmobile and ripped back to the hotel, where Sam was loading our stuff into a van. Josh ran back. 

A few frantic minutes later, I was sitting on top of my stuff with Josh, in the carbon monoxide-filled van's back on our way to the air strip.

This time our plane was a little four seater red one. Our pilot's name was Gert. I remember when we finally got packed in with our stuff packed properly, according to the plane's weight restrictions, Gert called air traffic control asking for clerance. He said "Fox Risky" something something. I made sure I remembered it, but it's been well over a month now and I forgot. The weight restrictions required Josh and I to pack ourselves into the back with my backpack stacked on top. Our parkas had to be on and there was stuff piled in the tail of the aircraft. It was a tight squeeze. I could barely see out my window, and with a wine buzz and Josh nudging me, it was quite the ride. I wasn't as scared this time. We each had head sets on, and Gert entertained us with dirty jokes the entire way. We pointed out mushers and enjoyed the view. I cheered as we crossed over the thick line in the forest that indicates the U.S./Canada border. 

We landed in Dawson safe and sound, and little did we know, the real adventure hadn't even started yet. 

Love,

Annalee.

Hurrumph.

My Quark crashed this morning, setting off a wave of anger after I was already in a pissy mood because of my continued financial problems. So once again I found myself cursing at a computer that just looks back at me with its little rainbow apple. Mocking me. Bastard. 

One of these days I'm going to go absolutely insane and yell at whoever will listen about the immense superiority of Adobe InDesign. I have already put my two cents in around the office when it comes up, and some day, I will rage in InDesign's honour. So much better. It never crashes, as Adobe products are built for a Mac platform and are much more stable. 

In other news, my crippling financial woes continue. I had enough money to buy my plane ticket but got a call from Kimberley from my bank that i owe them $114. So much for that. It's just one thing after another. I have taken to frantically buying lottery tickets for the growing $41 million lottery that hasn't been won in weeks. It could be ours. I swear. Everything would be so much better. 

Every once in a while I do internet window shopping and just imagine. I can't afford any of it, but I already have a shopping list planned from Urban Outfitters. I want one of their couches and fancy chairs, and possibly some of their yellow curtains with the ruffles that hang like a tacky My Little Pony tail. Ah. How beauitful life could be if everything was from Urban Outfitters.....I already know that I would ship it via Josh in Alaska. One of the advantages that helps overcome the disadvantages of dating an American. The biggest disadvantage being that one of us will have to aquire a Visa to the other's country one of these days. I swear, I'm on it. 

I'd be on it faster but I don't think I like cacti, and he's moving to Pheonix so they are plentiful. I still remember my fateful cacti disaster, when I left Bill, Christoph and the other one who's name I can't remember in the care of my mother over my European holiday and she managed to kill them. Who kills a cactus? I mean really!

My internet is sketchy right now. Time to play some more solitaire on my iPod.

Love,

Annalee.

27, 28 and 32

So I'm going to book my flight from Calgs to Whitehorse tonight. There is a pretty magnificent seat sale on right now with Air North. I love flying Air North because they have delicious ham sandwiches. I am not a ham sanny fan, but for some reason the ones on the planes are SOOO good. Maybe because I'm flying at like 4,000 feet and I am very aware that it could just be my last sandwich ever. 

Now I am not just looking forward to my flight because of the sandwich. Actually, I'm not looking forward to the flight at all, because it will mean that I am leaving Josh for who knows how long after our super-awesome adventure road trip through the U.S. 

I am however looking forward to the adventure. I want to go to California, but I'm not sure if it'll work out. I'd love to put my feet in the ocean, and go to San Francisco. Going to Florida to see Josh's home is a bit too far, so swimming in California will have to do I guess. We're going to discuss it later hopefully, if my internet works, because I want to get things underway so I can book my flight and secure the trip for realsies. Once I have a $230 plane ticket, I am committed. And I can't wait to be committed to this trip! Although maybe I should wait until I am sure about having money. Gah, it's all up in the air-ish. I hate it.

I'm losing hair like it's going out of style today for some reason. It begs the question of whether I brushed my hair or not this morning. I can't remember if I did or not. Gross. 

I discovered that Kya freaking loves playing with a ball the other day. She goes absolutely ape-shit for it. It is the funniest thing ever. Tonight I'm going to take her out to play with it, and hopefully film it if I can do so without laughing. She is crazy. She buries it in the snow, then puts her head in the snow like an ostrich and frantically searches for it. I will definitely film the insanity, it has to be documented. 

Anyway, it's pizza time. 

Love,

Annalee.

My puppy

After the mass destruction cause by Kya this week, we are finally on the same page. She stays on the porch during the day and waits for me. When I get home I get a big doggy hug. Today I took her for a walk on a trail behind our house, and she loved it. We went for a little jog up and down some bumps on a snowmobile track. Kya sniffed things and tried to chase birds, while I enjoyed the time outside. When we got home she picked the snowballs out from between the pads of her feet. So cute! Now she is quietly sleeping in ball on my floor. I'm so glad I didn't bring her to the pound in my frustration on Tuesday. Now I have the sweetest pet in the world.

Josh is here tomorrow. I can't wait. He's going to get in while I'm at work and pass out so that he can be in top form for the Real McKenzies. Hooray! I got all the ingredients to make him my yummy made up spinach and tomato alfredo sauce. I can't wait. It is like the best dinner ever. 1,000 calories and 79 grams of fat per serving too. Delicious! A once a year meal.

Sarah made some sort of delicious pie and brought it to work. I got back in the afternoon just in time for it, to do some editing. I dropped crums all over Vince's office and made a big mess before I was shunned back to my desk.

I'm making some tacos for dinner tonight. Grey's Anatomy is a re-run, so maybe I'll get to it now. Yum yum!!

Love,
Annalee.